MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto The bull market has room to run, analysts say.The new year is still in its early days but the equity market’s relentless rally that has propelled key indexes to new heights is already making one strategist’s forecast obsolete within the first month of 2018. In December, Wall Street analysts had projected the S&P 500 to hit an average 2,819 by the end of the year. That target has been met and exceeded after 14 days of trading. On Tuesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch raised its 2018 S&P 500 target to 3,000 from 2,800 in early December, citing stronger earnings on the back of the tax reform. But the upgrade comes with a warning. “We are watching for signs to temper our enthusiasm on the S&P 500. And with 11 of our 19 bear market signposts having been triggered, the risk-adjusted reward of stocks appears less compelling. But note that since 1968, at least 80% of our signposts have been signaled ahead of prior market peaks,” wrote Savita Subramanian, equity and quant strategist at Bank of America. With Subramanian’s revision, the average year-end forecast for the S&P 500 stands at 2,861, just 0.8% above its recent level. The new consensus forecast also includes targets from Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. equity strategist at Credit Suisse Securities LLC, and Tom Lee, managing partner at Fundstrat Global Advisors, which weren’t reflected previously. As is, 2017 was a hard act to follow with its double-digit gains, record-low volatility and untrammeled exuberance but judging by the market’s extraordinary gains of 6% in less than a month, 2018 is shaping up to be another one for the record books. The bull market is set to celebrate its ninth birthday in March, and if it remains intact into August, it will officially become the longest in history.via